Starting small – bamboo whistles

As a musician, of course I can’t wait to make musical instruments from bamboo, and once you start looking into it you’ll find the most amazing bamboo music all over the world, including percussion, wind and even string instruments.

As I said, I am starting small, so here are two of the tiny bamboo whistles I crafted – I made about a dozen already but gave most of them away as presents.

bamboo whistle

 

Is there any smaller ‘musical instrument’ than this?

As small as they are, these whistles produce a surprising volume and apart from looking and feeling much better than plastic whistles, they are also much more durable and completely biodegradable – instead of glue I used resin from a pine tree to fix the plug and then I sealed the mouth piece with bees wax, which looks pretty and feels lovely on the lips.

So, technically speaking, these are 100% eco-whistles!

Welcome to my blog!

A few years ago I deeply fell in love with bamboo for its

  • beautiful sight, sound and touch
  • infinite creative potential
  • fast and sustainable growth
  • strength and flexibility
  • regenerative power
  • socio-economic value
  • philosophy

and since then have been investing most of my spare time into online research,  developing a growing vision of sustainable livelihoods and raising funds working as a freelance musician/tutor/composer/musical director in UK.

In August 2015 my vision started to become reality when I planted 64 bamboo seedlings on a piece of land in the subtropical coastal climate of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.

In this blog I will share my experiments, experiences, successes and failures for you all to enjoy at your leisure.

I am also sharing the most fascinating and valuable bamboo facts and knowledge I came across during my online research on Facebook, stay tuned by liking my page and joining the group @BambooWoman.